The Romance of Friendship
by AnonT83
Summary: To get a license to become a Pokémon trainer, everyone must undertake two years of education at a Pokémon academy. Ash, Dawn, Misty, Gary, Drew and May are friends who live together in dorms at Goldenrod Academy where they experience the romantic complications that come with being a teenager. AU. Primarily Pearlshipping/Contestshipping.
1. Ash's First Day

"We're finally here!" The raven haired boy exclaimed with enthusiasm.

In front of Ash were the next two years of his life. After many protests about the dangers of travelling at such a young age, anybody who wanted to be a pokémon trainer now had to go to an academy at fifteen until they were seventeen. Unfortunately for Ash, his age group was the first to have to abide by these new laws. Anybody older than him had been a trainer for years. The last five years had felt excruciatingly long, but finally the rest of his life could begin.

"Calm down, Ashy-boy." His brown-haired friend laughed.

"You don't have to try and be cool all the time, Gary. Don't tell me you're not even a little exctied to start here!" Their redhead friend replied.

Ash, Gary and Misty were all good friends from Viridian High back in Kanto. Luckily for them, all three of them were enrolled at the Goldenrod Academy in Johto. None of them liked the idea of being apart, and where else but a prestigious place like Goldenrod City to start a new chapter in their lives?

The campus was especially beautiful this time of year. Ahead of the trio was a modern and spacious expanse, consisting of an array of buildings and a golden-brown blend of vegetation, and there were students everywhere just like them.

"You'd think we were in Ecruteak with all these leaves!" Ash said gleefully.

Misty smiled. "Yeah I've gotta admit, if we have to spend two years somewhere, this does seem like a pretty perfect place."

"Man, I am so psyched! We're finally going to be doing something with our lives which is remotely related to pokémon!" Ash practically shouted, giddy with enthusiasm.

"Not that I'm not excited, but you might not want to get your hopes too high Ash. We're still going to be stuck in classrooms most of the time," Gary reminded Ash.

"I don't care! At least the classes will be be about something I'm interested in, and anything beats having to do math," Ash remarked.

"Psh, math is easy anyway. You just suck at it," Gary teased.

"I don't suck at math! You were the one who always copied me in that class!"

"I think you've got it the wrong way round there, Ashy-boy."

"Okay, firstly, stop calling me that. And secondly, how have I got it the wrong way round? You copied Misty too! Aren't I right, Misty?"

"I think the dorms are this way," Misty said as if she wasn't listening, trying to change the subject.

"Thank God I can finally put down all this luggage soon. Hey Ashy-boy, you want to carry my stuff for the rest of the walk?" Gary asked while grinning.

"Stop calling me that! And how come you're fine for two miles but you can't carry your stuff for another hundred meters?" Ash argued.

"Well, to be fair, we haven't got to the stairs yet." Gary replied.

"I think you can manage, Gary..."

"Guys," Misty interrupted, "I've gotta go, the girls' dorms are over there. I better not have to put up with you two bickering all year."

"Can't promise anything," Gary joked.

The guys waved off Misty as she headed in a different direction. They headed for their dorms, which turned out to only be on the first floor of the building.

* * *

The two quickly found Gary's dorm, and Ash's dorm was just down the hall. Gary swiped his key card to get in, something that every student was mailed ahead of time for convenience. What he didn't expect to see was somebody already in there.

"Hey, uh, who are you?" Gary asked the guy.

The green haired boy took out his headphones and sat up from the bed that he was lying down on. He looked up at Gary and Ash, slightly surprised to see two people.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you for a second there. I'm Drew, and one of you is Gary, right?"

"Yeah, that's me. This is my friend Ash," Gary replied, gesturing Ash to Drew.

"Oh, good to meet you guys. Gary, I'm your roommate. Didn't you know I was going to live here too?" Drew asked, confused.

"Classic Gary," Ash muttered to himself, resulting in a kick from Gary. Guess he didn't say it quietly enough.

Gary scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Yeah, of course I knew you were my roommate... I just didn't think you would already be here." Not the most convincing lie he's told before.

"Well I'd help you unpack all your stuff now but we should probably do it later since the assembly is going to start soon," Drew replied.

"Good idea, it would probably take a while with all the stuff I've got. Ash wouldn't even help me carry any of it," Gary remarked, pretending to shake his head in disappointment.

"You're not the only one with luggage, I've got a bunch too," Ash responded. "Wait, I haven't even put any of this stuff in my room! I'll be back in a sec, guys." After that realisation, Ash disappeared down the hall.

Ash managed to find his dorm which was right at the end of the same hall that Drew and Gary's dorm was on. Gary was an idiot for not checking his mail from the academy in advance, but Ash did. He knew for sure that he wasn't sharing his room with anyone.

He opened the door to find a fairly small room with just enough space for a closet, a desk and a single bed. It didn't matter though, because that was all he needed.

* * *

Drew tagged along with Ash and Gary to the assembly where they found their seats. The hall they were in must have been packed with a thousand students at least. Ash and Gary tried to see if they could spot Misty in the crowd, but no luck. She was probably making friends of her own anyway. The boys eventually decided they should just sit down. Drew lead the other two to a row towards the back of the hall, where he realised he recognised the brunette who was sat at the end of the row on her own.

"May?" Drew called in disbelief.

"Oh my god, Drew!" The girl replied in equal disbelief as she turned to see him.

The three guys awkwardly shuffled across the empty row to sit next to May.

"I can't believe it's really you! What are you doing here?" May asked.

"I could ask you the same thing," Drew laughed. "I guess I just didn't like the look of the academies that were in Hoenn."

This seemed to be a surprise to Gary. "Wait, you're from Hoenn? What are you doing in Johto?" Gary awkwardly interrupted, which May giggled at.

"The reasons he just said..." Ash mumbled to Gary, trying to make him feel like an idiot.

"May, these are my friends, Gary and Ash. Guys, this is May, an old school friend of mine from Hoenn," Drew said.

"Yeah, me and Drew were pretty much in all the same classes at our school in Petalburg City. I didn't think we'd see each other again to be honest," May remarked.

"Honestly, me too. Do you know if anyone else from Petalburg has come here?" Drew asked.

"No idea I'm afraid," May shrugged.

A man who looked no older than thirty walked to the stage at the front of the hall. He stood in front of the microphone, clearing his throat as he adjusted it to allign with his height.

"Good afternoon everyone, thank you all for coming. I hope you all have had a chance to settle into your dorms. You will be the first of many, many students to live in them. Today marks a very special day, as all of you are going to be the first to go through the Pokémon Academy experience. Let me just say, I completely empathise with you. I can't imagine the irritation of seeing people only a year older than you be able to train pokémon at the age of ten, while you had to wait another five years just to get to this point."

Irriting is an understatement, Ash thought. Before the law was enforced, he had wanted to be a Pokémon Master before he even reached ten, so to have another five years added to the waiting list was pure cruelty to him.

"However, I don't think it is a bad thing. In two years time, you will have a far better understanding of being a trainer than anyone older than you. What you will get from this experience is knowledge beyond just that. You will understand how pokémon work, and how the worlds works around pokémon, and you will learn more about yourselves here than you will travelling for the rest of your lives. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity."

The principal of the academy rambled on for a good twenty minutes after that about all of the technicalities of the course, which Ash was slightly more interested in than being patronised about his age, but admittedly he was getting pretty bored towards to end. Eventually though, he dismissed everyone. Since everybody wanted to leave at the same time, there was a huge crowd of people flooding out of the hall.

The four stood up and decided to remain in their row for a while until the the hall was a lot less crowded.

"So have you guys eaten yet? Apparently there's a fast food place just outside the campus," May asked.

"Fast food? Count me in!" Ash responded with the enthusiasm of a child, with the other two nodding in agreement. If there was one thing that could cheer Ash up, it was some super unhealthy food that he could stuff his face with.

"Is it okay if we invite our friend Misty?" Gary added, taking his phone out of his pocket to text her.

"Sure! The more the merrier," May answered cheerfully.

* * *

The four soon became a five as Misty caught up with Ash and Gary and got acquainted with May and Drew. They reached the fast food restaurant where they got a table. Gary and Ash went to the counter to order for everyone while the other three waited at their table.

"So Misty, how long have you been friends with Ash and Gary?" Drew asked.

"Around six years now, but Ash and Gary have known each other since they were really young. What about you guys?" She asked, addressing both of them.

May and Drew exchanged a look of hesitancy. May decided to speak up.

"Dunno... I think we've known each other for six years, but I'd say we've only really been friends for like a year." Misty was surprised by this.

"Really? How'd that happen?"

"Well at school, we were always in the same classes but we were just kind of in different friend groups, we only really got to know each other a little better towards the end of school," Drew said sheepishly.

Ash and Gary came back to the table with two trays of burgers and fries. Ash couldn't help but keep an amused look on his face, he couldn't hide the fact that he had been laughing.

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" Ash asked, still with an amused expression.

"What? What's so funny Ash?" Misty asked.

"Ash, just leave it," Gary groaned as put his tray on the table.

"Gary tried to hit on the girl at the counter and she totally shot him down," Ask said, trying to contain his laughter. Misty and May giggled at this and Gary was trying to get them to stop.

"She was cute, okay? What was the worst that could happen?" Gary replied.

"That," Ash said, still laughing.

Drew smiled sympathetically at Gary. "Don't worry man, I've been there before."

"Really? How'd you get better at it?" Gary couldn't help but ask.

"Don't know, just comes with experience I guess," he shrugged.

"Well don't worry, Gary has plenty of experience being shot down by girls," Misty teased.

"Misty... He didn't need to know that!" Gary complained.

"Oh come on Gary, he was going to realise eventually. You've always been awkward with girls."

"I don't think that's specific to girls, Misty," Ash added, which made Misty laugh.

"Please, I am not that bad," Gary insisted. "May, as somebody who's only met me today, do you think I come across as awkward?"

"I don't know, that's kind of an awkward question to ask somebody you don't know that well," May responded. Now Gary knew this debate was a lost cause.

Drew looked around to the counter, observing the girl behind it. "I can see why you tried chatting her up though Gary, she's pretty cute. Would it be okay if I tried talking to her?"

"Sure, why not." Gary knew he wasn't ever going to get anywhere with her.

"Thanks, she doesn't look busy now so I'll give it a go," Drew said.

"Drew," May stopped him before he left the table. "Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, this poor girl has already had to reject a guy today. She probably isn't going to be interested in dating anyone right now."

"The only way we'll know is if I do it," Drew said confidently. May seemed visibly bugged about this, as if she didn't want him talking to this girl. There was no stopping Drew once he set his mind to something, though. He headed towards the counter.

"So Ashy-boy, you wanna ask her out if Drew fails as well?" Gary asked now that Drew left the table.

"No way, I'm with May on this. That poor girl is just doing her job, and anyway, I don't see why you guys think she's so cute. She looks fairly normal to me," Ash responded.

"Thank you, Ash. I'm glad somebody else sees it how I do," May said.

"He's only saying that because he isn't interested in girls," Gary laughed.

May looked at Ash, slightly confused. "Oh, are you... ?"

"No, I'm not gay or anything either, I'm just not interested in dating."

"Ohhhhh, okay."

A couple of minutes later, Drew walked back to the table with a smug look on his face.

"Guess who just got the number of a cute girl?" He smiled.

"If it's not you then this story is pretty random," Gary joked.

"Well, it was me. I'm going out with her tomorrow."

"Impressive, Drew. I didn't think you could do it," May said with a surprised expression.

Misty couldn't help but wonder if May was faking her contentedness about the situation, though. She seemed pretty adamant about him not asking the girl out. And that look they gave each other earlier kind of implied they weren't telling her something. Was something going on between those two?

* * *

The five friends had gone back to the boys' dorms to help Gary and Ash finish unpacking. It was early evening and Misty was exhausted to go back to her own dorm.

"I can unpack all this stuff tomorrow" she said aloud to nobody in particular as she opened the door to her dorm room, yawning.

Misty walked in, wiping her face around her eyes to see if what she saw was really true. There was an even bigger mess of unpacked belongings than before.

A blue haired girl, who was kneeling on her bed, was putting some photos on the wall. She looked over in response to the sound of the door to see the very girl she had been expecting.

"Sorry about all this stuff! I hope you don't mind but I've just put all of your stuff on your bed. I'll totally help you unpack your stuff as well after this." She said optimistically, smiling. "You must be Misty! It's good to finally meet you."

* * *

 **Hi, thanks for reading the first chapter of my fanfiction! I'm new to this site and to writing fanfiction in general, so I'm aware that there are potentially some mistakes. I'd really appreciate any feedback I could get, positive or negative, so I know what to do best for the future chapters. This chapter was only really about introducing the characters and the general academy setting, so some more interesting stuff will go down later on!**

 **Anyway, I hope you all like this story and thanks again for reading!**

 **-AnonT83**


	2. May's Crush

"Oh, crap!"

Ash immediately sprung out of bed, realising that he had overslept. He was having such a peaceful slumber as well, until he looked at his phone and saw that the time was 7:50. His first class, Pokémon Biology, started at 8:05. He had planned to get up at least half an hour earlier but he was so sleep deprived because that night he had let his nerves keep him awake.

There was no time for breakfast, Ash was out the door with his backpack as soon as he was dressed. There was no way he was showing up late to a class in his pajamas... again.

He paced down the hall where he caught Gary heading off to his first class as well.

"Hey Gary, wait up!" Ash shouted as he caught up to him.

"Morning Ashy-boy," he said, hoping to provoke an annoyed reaction out of Ash.

Ash just grunted as they started to slow down their walking pace.

"Hey, you didn't get all mad," Gary remarked.

"No, I'm too tired to do that."

"Why are you so tired, Ash? You went back to your dorm at like eight in the evening, that's more than enough time to rest."

"Well," Ash started, followed by him yawning before he continued, "I was kinda nervous about these classes so I couldn't go to sleep. It was horrible. And now, I'm probably going to miss these classes because I'll be half asleep the whole time. Oh, not just that, I also don't know anyone in any of my classes so I'll be lonely as well."

"You'll be fine, just try to stay awake and you'll enjoy it. And after your first bunch of classes, meet me in the cafeteria at lunch, I think Drew and May will be there too."

"What about Misty?"

"I assume Misty's coming too, I'll ask her when I get to my class."

"Misty's in your class?" Ash couldn't believe his own bad luck.

"Yeah, didn't I mention that yesterday?"

"No?"

"Oh. Well, Misty's in my class!"

"Thanks for letting me know," Ash responded sarcastically.

"Hey, there are people luckier than me. Drew is still asleep at the dorm, he doesn't have his first class until like ten." Gary couldn't have sounded more jealous if he tried when saying this.

"Why is life so unfair?" Ash groaned.

"Beats me. Anyway, I'll see ya later." Gary said as he headed off in a different direction from Ash.

* * *

Gary and Misty's class was about pokémon battling. The professor of the class was rambling on about type matchups, something that they were both already very familiar with. It was patronising. Anybody going to one of these academies is already going to be interested enough in pokémon to know type matchups.

"Why aren't you taking notes?" Misty whispered to Gary while the professor was still talking to the class.

"Because I already know all this stuff," he replied.

"Yeah but do you know why the matchups are the way they are?"

"Well, no, but I figure that a trainer has no reason to know that kind of stuff. All a trainer needs to know during battle is _what_ the strongest move is, not _why_ it's the strongest move," he sighed.

"You realise we're going to be tested on this stuff at a later date?"

Gary paused for a minute. "Can I copy your notes?"

"You should've been listening," she smirked.

"Come on, Misty! Only for today!" Gary said in an obliviously loud tone.

"Quiet at the back!" The professor shouted, which made Misty laugh.

"Ash would've let me copy his notes," Gary muttered, "well, that's if he isn't asleep right now."

* * *

Gary wasn't wrong. Ash was in his biology class but he was barely awake.

 _I am staying awake_ , he kept repeating to himself in his head.

 _You're doing great. Just try and pay attention now._ His internal commands didn't seem to be working very well, however. His eyes were starting to close.

Ash had to physically slap himself in the face to properly wake up. It seemed to do the trick though. The professor called his name out on the register just after that so it was pretty lucky that he slapped himself in the face when he did.

It wasn't long though before he started to drift off again, that was until he felt a light tap on his shoulder.

 _That wasn't my hand..._

He slowly turned his head to the left to find a girl who wanted his attention. Suddenly, his eyes were wide open.

"Sorry to wake you from your nap," she giggled. "Do you have a pencil sharpener I could borrow?"

Ash felt a tad embarrassed in front of this girl. He probably couldn't have looked more like an idiot if he tried.

"Yeah, sure. Here you go," he said as he handed her a sharpener he managed to fish out of his extremely unorganised backpack.

"Thanks," the girl smiled.

"By the way, I wasn't napping, I was just... closing my eyes so I could focus, you know, really take the information in," he said sheepishly.

"Oh, I see. I used to do that in my history class," she joked. "I'm Dawn, by the way. I'm guessing you didn't hear it in the register when you were napping."

"Oh no, I did. I was focused, remember?"

"Really? Then what's my last name?" She said, smirking.

"Uhhh... Stone?"

"I see what you did there," she grinned.

The two ended up conversing for most of that lesson. Ash couldn't help but think to himself how cool this girl was. They both had the same sense of humour, and it turned out that they both had the same passion for pokémon too. He almost felt like she was the sister he never had. Ash never thought it was even possible to click with someone this well. Maybe his classes wouldn't be so bad after all if they were all like this one.

* * *

It turned out that Dawn was only in the one class, and what's worse is that he still hadn't had any classes with any of his other friends.

It was lunch, and Ash was searching around the cafeteria, hoping to find one of his friends already sat at a table, as they had agreed to meet there. He eventually spotted Gary and Drew and sat next to them.

"Hey Ashy-boy, you finally woken up?" Gary said, poking fun at Ash.

"Yeah, I'm awake enough to tell you to stop calling me that," he replied.

"Wait, why were you so tired, Ash?" Drew asked.

Ash shrugged. "I couldn't sleep, nerves I guess."

Drew nodded in sympathy. "I know what that's like. There was one night like a year ago where I just couldn't get any sleep because I was so nervous to ask out this girl I liked."

"Did it go well?" Gary asked, genuinely interested.

"No, but my sleep deprived state wasn't the reason why, so it didn't matter."

Misty and May quickly spotted the boys after entering the cafeteria and joined them at their table.

"Hey guys, what are you talking about?" May asked as she sat down.

"Ash was just saying how he was tired all day," Drew responded.

"You're not the only one Ash," May sighed, " I still have a messed up sleep schedule from when I was up all night in the summer."

Something occured to Ash while Misty took a seat next to May.

"Were you two in the same class just now?" He asked, feeling like he already knew the answer.

"Yeah, we were! What were the chances?" Misty exclaimed.

"God, this is so unfair," Ash crossed his arms, "I haven't had any of you guys in any of my classes and you all have each other."

"Did all your classes suck then?" Misty said in a sympathetic tone.

"My first class was great, but other than that one class, they've all been pretty boring. I mean, learning about pokémon is interesting and all, but unless we get to actually interact with them, it's not enough."

"Well, at least your first class was good," Misty remarked.

"My first class was awesome, I met this girl and we really hit it off. Her name's Dawn."

Misty was wide-eyed. "That wouldn't by any chance be Dawn Berlitz would it?" she questioned with disbelief.

"Well, I didn't hear her last name because I was asleep for half of the register."

May murmured to Misty, "who's Dawn Berlitz?"

"She's my roommate. We met last night, she seems really nice." Misty redirected herself to Ash. "This Dawn from your class, was she really pretty and did she have long, blue hair?"

"Yeah, her hair was blue! It's gotta be the same girl then, since blue hair is pretty uncommon. You should invite her to hang out with us after the rest of the classes." Ash got out his schedule to check when he next had Biology. "Hey, I'll see Dawn tomorrow. I'll be able to check it's the same girl then."

"Hey Ash," Gary said while getting out his own schedule, "let me see that. We might have a class together that we just haven't had yet."

"Oh, that's true," Ash remembered, handing it to Gary.

Gary ran his finger along each schedule, trying to see if there were any classes that matched up. "Hah! Pokémon Health!" he declared overdramatically, making the others snigger slightly, before he realised and went back to a quieter voice. "We have Pokémon Health together tomorrow, and most days by the looks of it. Guess we just didn't have it today."

Ash took his schedule back from Gary, finally satisfied. "Awesome! I thought I was going to be lonely in all of my classes. Guess things aren't so bad after all."

"What's the difference between Pokémon Biology and Pokémon Health? They sound like the same thing to me," Misty asked the group.

"I think Health is where you learn how to take care of pokémon, whereas Biology is just learning about the science behind the importance of that sort of stuff," May tried to explain. She wasn't entirely sure if she nailed it but Drew's nodding assured her she did.

"Huh, that's makes sense now. I take it you had the Health class today too, Drew?" Misty asked him, to which he responded with a "yup".

"Hey Misty, if you haven't had Pokémon Health yet, maybe you're in the same class as me and Ash," Gary suggested. "Do you have it tomorrow at nine?"

"Yup! This is great, it's like the Kanto trio back together again!"

"Since when were you guys not together?" May laughed.

* * *

After lunch, they each went back to their classes, and once the day was over, they could finally relax again. Ash found himself wasting his afternoon with Gary and Drew at their dorm, playing video games. Ash and Gary should be considered very lucky, because Drew brought his TV and game consoles when he moved onto the academy campus.

"Unlucky guys, guess I'm just better at Mario Kart than you," Drew said, flipping his hair.

"That's unfair, I was winning up until the final lap," Gary groaned.

"Anyway Drew, if Misty were here then she'd totally kick your ass at this game. She always wins whenever we play any video game," Ash remarked.

"I'll have to play her some time then, but I'm afraid it can't be tonight. I'm going out on a date in a sec," Drew replied, getting up from the bed he was sat on.

"Is this with the girl who shot me down yesterday?" Gary asked, hoping it was somebody different.

"Yup, sorry man. If you come up in conversation, I'll try and make you come across as less of a loser," he said, putting on his jacket.

"Hey, I'm not a loser!"

"But she doesn't know that. Anyway, I'll see you guys later." And with that, Drew was out the door.

"So, you wanna play another round?" Gary asked Ash, gesturing to the TV. "It'll help me take my mind off how much of a loser I am," he said jokingly.

"You're not a loser, Gary. The right girl is just around the corner," Ash said assuredly. "I think I'll pass on the Mario Kart, though."

"Why?"

"Because I want to explore the campus a little more, since we've only really seen half of it. You wanna come with me?"

"Sure, you wanna invite Misty and May as well?" Gary asked. He'd always thought that the more, the merrier.

"Sure! I'll text them."

* * *

Ash and Gary headed out to explore some more of the academy. They met up with May and Misty who joined them to look around the campus. After a while, they decided to sit down at a benched area.

"So Misty, did you find out if the two Dawns we met are the same?" Ash asked.

"Nope," Misty responded, "she was out. When I talked to her yesterday, she said she was interested in coordination so maybe she's at the coordination club."

May was confused."What's coordination?"

The other three slowly turned their heads towards May in sheer disbelief.

"You don't know what coordination is?" They practically said in unison.

May shrugged. "Well, no. Is it like some kind of sport?"

The other three glanced at each other, as if they were telepathically saying 'should you tell her or should I?' Gary decided to speak up.

"Pokémon coordination is essentially an alternative to the Pokémon League, where instead of battling, you show off the beauty of your pokémon. There are festivals that revolve around it."

"Oh, I see. My father is a gym leader so that kind of explains why it never would have been mentioned to me," she remarked.

Ash couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Really? You must get to see a lot of great battles."

"It's not terribly exciting if you're not super interested. Drew knows how I feel about this so he could back me up here. Where is Drew anyway?"

"He went out on a date with that girl from yesterday," Gary answered.

"Oh, okay..." she said, trying to seem cool about it, which she didn't do very convincingly. "What's this girl's name anyway? And where did they go?"

"Jeez May, you planning on stalking him or something?" Gary joked.

"No, but..." May trailed off her sentence, contemptlating whether to say what she was about to say next. She took a deep breath and decided to just say it. She felt like she could trust these new friends of hers.

"To tell you guys the truth, I kind of have a crush on Drew."

Gary and Misty could've seen what she said coming a mile away. Ash, on the other hand, had no idea.

"I never would've guessed," Ash said, shaking his head.

Gary and Misty laughed at this. "Ash, could you be any more dense?" Gary grinned.

May panicked. "Oh God, is it that easy to tell?"

"Don't worry about it, May. Drew is completely oblivious from what I've seen," Misty assured her. "So how long have you felt this way about him?"

May tried to think back to when she first knew. "I don't know, it just kind of happened. I didn't say anything to him because we were friends, and I didn't want to ruin our friendship." She hung her head in her hands. "I guess you wouldn't understand what it's like to catch feelings for somebody you've known for a long time."

But May was wrong. Misty knew all too well.

* * *

 **And that's Chapter 2! Just the fact that people read my first chapter is amazing to think about, so if you're reading this as well then all I can do it say thanks again. I appreciate the reviews I got on the first chapter, and I look forward to reading any more reviews as we progress through the story.**

 **So I changed the name of the story because the first one was bad, let's be honest. I'm just bad at titles and it took me a couple more days to think of one which I liked, and this one just seems very appropriate. I hope it's clear that any potential relationships in the story pretty much all stem from friendships.**

 **Also, I'm aiming to try and submit one chapter a week. I can't promise I'll always stick to it, but I'll give it my best shot.**

 **-AnonT83**


	3. Dawn's Introduction

Ash found himself a little more awake on the second day of classes at the academy. It was finally Pokémon Health class, the one where he didn't feel like a total loner.

"Settle down," their professor of this class commanded, a lady of around 40 years of age. The only reason she even had to say was because Gary wouldn't shut up, much to Ash and Misty's amusement.

She began explaining the point of the class; how it would improve a trainer's understanding of how to know to take proper care of pokémon, and the responsibilities that come with owning one.

"I'm not like the other professors," she stated, "and as such, I'm not going to stick completely to the curriculum. I'm going to introduce to you all a task that will truly give you some hands-on experience at taking care of pokémon."

From underneath her desk at the front of the room, she placed a transparent jar which seemed to contain something. It was none other than a pokémon egg.

"Now, I want all of you to get into pairs, because each pair will take care of a pokémon egg until they hatch. I cannot emphasise enough how important it is that these eggs are taken care of properly. If any of you have a problem or can't handle the responsibility, come and see me. I'll now give you all a few minutes to find partners."

The room, which had around 30 students, began to all discuss who were partnering up with whom.

"I didn't see that coming," Misty chuckled.

"Yeah, I didn't think she'd think we were responsible enough," Gary responded.

"Me neither, but I'm excited as hell!" Ash declared.

"The only problem is, there's three of us," Misty noted, something that hadn't occured to Ash or Gary. "One of us will have to go with someone else."

"Okay, well which one of you wants to work with me? Since only one of you can," Gary grinned.

"I'll go with you Gary," Ash shrugged. But Misty had a different idea.

"That's not fair, why can't I go with him?"

"Because Misty, you didn't care enough to say first."

"But I don't want to be stuck with someone else!"

"Well neither do I."

"Okay, how about a compromise," Misty suggested. "Why don't we ditch Gary and partner up with each other?"

"Yeah, that works," Ash nodded, realising Gary would be the one suffering.

"Whoa whoa whoa guys, I don't think you've thought this through. I don't want to go with someone else!" Gary protested.

"Too late, it's decided," Misty smirked.

Gary gave up and got out of his seat, having to look around the class to see who else was in his position.

"I hope you realise that this isn't going to be easy Ash, with us living in different buildings and all," Misty pointed out to Ash.

"Yeah, you've got a point. I guess we'll have to figure out a way to split the responsibility of it equally," Ash said.

"Okay, how about we just take it in turns to take care of it each day? So if I take care of it today, then you'd take care of it tomorrow, et cetera..."

"Works for me!"

Meanwhile, Gary saw somebody who didn't look like they were paired up yet. She seemed to be visibly annoyed with the girls next to her.

"Hey," Gary said to her, sitting in the seat next to her, "have you paired up yet?"

"Nope," she replied, shaking her head. "My friends paired up with each other and ditched me..."

"The same thing happened to me!" Gary was relieved that he wasn't the only one who had to suffer this pain.

"What did we do to get such jerks for friends?" She asked in a joking manner, her mood lightening up a little knowing she wasn't alone.

"Thank you! It's like they don't know how much it sucks going with someone else."

"Thanks," the girl replied sarcastically.

Gary cringed at what he just said. Maybe Misty had a point about him being awkward.

"Well, you know what I mean," he said, attempting to fix his error, which she just laughed at.

"Anyway, you wanna just partner up? My name's Leaf, by the way."

Sure enough, Gary decided to partner up with Leaf rather than return to the wilderness of strangers he didn't want to meet. The less awkward encounters for him, the better.

* * *

"Hey, cool egg," Dawn said to Ash as he took his seat next to her in their Biology class.

"Thanks, we just got them from Health class," he replied, smiling at Dawn's compliment, even if it wasn't really complimenting him.

"God, you're so lucky! I had Health class yesterday and our professor just made us take a bunch of notes on pokémon medicine."

"Well my friend Misty seems to think it will become tiring after a while, having to keep it safe all the time."

"Hey!" Dawn said in disbelief. "My roommate's called Misty. It's not a very common name you know, do you think think it's the same person?"

"Well, about that... it is the same person," Ash said sheepishly.

"How do you know?"

"Yesterday at lunch, she mentioned that you were her roommate. She said she was going to tell you she knew me yesterday but you didn't get back to the dorm until late because of some club."

"Oh yeah," she remarked, "I went to this coordination club, and we ended up hanging out the whole day. I found out that the club could only meet like once a month so I thought I better make the most of the meetings."

"Well listen, if you want, you can hang out with me and Misty at lunch today. It would be cool if everybody got to meet you."

"Who's everybody?" the blunette asked out of curiosity, putting her elbow on the desk and resting her chin on her hand.

"Well, there are actually five of us, including me and Misty."

"Okay sure, that sounds like fun. Yesterday I spent lunch with my friend from Sinnoh but she got on so well with the people from her classes, I kind of felt left out," she sighed.

"Ah, that sucks. But no way is that going to happen with us, you'll feel like one of us before you know it," he smiled reassuringly.

* * *

The next two classes went by fairly quickly for Ash. He found the classes that day more interesting than the previous, and before he knew it, he was heading to the cafeteria with Dawn. They agreed to meet outside the building first, but Dawn's class was the other side of the campus. By the time they both finally arrived, everybody else was already sat down.

"Hey guys," he greeted as he and Dawn reached their table, "this is Dawn. Dawn, you know Misty," he said as he gestured towards her. "And this is Gary, May and Drew," he continued, with each of them replying with a casual "hey".

Admittedly, Dawn was slightly nervous. She kept telling herself that this wasn't a big deal, but given that she turned down her other friend's lunch invite only on the second day of classes, she sort of felt like there was no turning back. But no need to worry, as she would often say, this will go fine.

"So Dawn, where are you from?" May asked her.

"Sinnoh," she replied.

"Wow, that's far! What made you come here instead of stay up there?" May asked, impressed to find someone else at the academy who lived as far away Hoenn.

"Well I'm not a fan of the weather in Sinnoh, it's too cold," Dawn remarked.

"You know, my grandfather's doing research in Sinnoh at the moment" Gary chimed in.

Dawn was surprised to hear this. "Really? What's he researching up there?"

"No idea. One of these days I'll have to start listening to him," he shrugged.

"Gary, how can you find your grandfather boring? He's Professor Oak for God's sake!" Misty said to him, finding it ridiculous that he could say that.

Dawn was taken aback by what Misty just said, turning to Gary. "The Professor Oak? From Kanto?"

"Yup."

"That's so cool! I used to love the pokémon poetry he would read on TV when I was a kid," Dawn commented.

Ash's face lit up. "Me too! I thought I was the only one who watched it!"

Drew and Gary smirked at each other. "Ten dollars says they're a couple within a month," Drew whispered to Gary under his breath, to which Gary quietly responded with "deal".

"What?" Ash said, overhearing Drew say something.

"Nothing!" Drew seemed to insist.

Dawn was slightly confused by their antics, but didn't care too much about it, as she had more important things to worry about, like food. "I'll be right back guys, I'm going to go get something to eat," she informed the group, before getting up and leaving the table.

"So, you guys like her?" Ash asked the group, to which Gary and Drew responded positively.

May grinned at what she was sure she saw between Ash and Dawn. "I think the real question we need to ask here is, do you like her?" She teased.

"I don't understand what you mean, obviously I like her or I wouldn't have invited her," Ash obliviously responded to May's futile attempt at provoking him.

"I think the answer is no then," Misty laughed.

"You wanna just pay me now, or... ?" Gary murmured to Drew.

"Not yet," he murmured back.

"What are you guys talking about?" Ash asked again.

"Nothing!" Drew decided to quickly change the subject. "So Gary, where's your egg?"

"Leaf has it," he shrugged.

The other four raised their eyebrows in confusion.

"My partner," he clarified. "After you two ditched me, I had to find someone else, and it just so happened that Leaf had the same problem."

"We're sorry about that, by the way," Ash said, feeling slightly bad.

"Don't worry about it, in fact I'm glad you did. Leaf said she was happy to take care of the egg whenever I want!"

"Gary! You're not supposed to just dump the responsibility on your partner when something gets a little harder," Misty said, rolling her eyes.

"Why not?"

"Because that'll make you become a terrible trainer,"

"Okay, you might have a point there."

May wasn't satisfied with her answer earlier and was determined to get more of an answer out of Ash. There was a spark between those two, she just knew it. "Ash, what I meant earlier was do you see yourself having feelings for Dawn?"

"You're still on that May?" Misty sighed.

Ash realised what May meant. "Well I haven't really given it any thought,"

"Given what any thought?" Dawn questioned, coming back to the table with some food.

"Uh, um, I -" Ash panicked, stuttering.

 _What the hell am I supposed to say to that?_ He thought to himself. _I have no reason to lie when I don't have anything to hide, but if I tell her the truth, it would be so awkward! Okay, quick, what else haven't I given thought? Other than what I'm going to say now... Okay, I'll just lie! Ash looked down at his egg for inspiration._

"I haven't given much thought what me and Misty should name the pokémon that hatches from the egg," he attempted replying in a cool manner. The other four seemed impressed at his save and Dawn seemed to buy it.

Thankfully, as the conversation moved forward, May didn't tease Ash anymore so he could relax again.

* * *

After the rest of the classes that day, Misty and Dawn decided to go back to their own dorm so that they could lie down. May also asked if she could hang out with them since she'd rather hang out with them than the guys. That didn't mean she wouldn't stop obsessing over Drew, though. Apparently not being face to face only encouraged May to interact with Drew more.

May paced around the room while Dawn and Misty lied down on their beds. She was watching her phone, waiting for the sound of a notification.

"Why isn't Drew replying to me?" She asked them.

"Don't get so hung up on him, he probably just hasn't looked at his phone yet," Misty reassured her.

"You're probably right, I'll just wait," she replied.

Ten minutes passed and there was still no reply. May was growing impatient and it was becoming clearer and clearer to Dawn and Misty.

"Want me to text Gary? I'll try and get him to bring up whatever Drew's doing," Misty asked May, sympathising with her.

"Wow, you'd do that for me? I'd be really grateful."

"Yeah sure, plus I can annoy Gary in the process, it'll be fun," Misty grinned. She got out her phone and started a text conversation with gary.

 **Misty:** Hey can I come over? Ash said Drew brought his Wii and a bunch of games with him when he moved in.

 **Gary:** Sure, Drew's out on a date but doesn't mind us using it.

 **Misty:** He's on a date again? Is it the same girl as yesterday?

 **Gary:** Nope, it's a different girl, someone from one of his classes I think. Anyway should I set it up?

 **Misty:** Sorry, I changed my mind about that.

 **Gary:** ...

Misty chuckled, putting her phone back in her pocket.

"What's so funny?" Dawn asked, sitting up.

"Oh, I was just annoying Gary," Misty laughed. "And May, Gary said that Drew was out with some girl, and not the same one as yesterday."

May rolled her eyes at this. "So typical of him, he's always going out with random girls. It's really annoying..."

"If you don't mind me asking," Dawn inquired, "why does it bother you so much who Drew goes out with?"

"Well I might as well tell you since you're one of us now," May shrugged. "I have feelings for Drew."

Misty couldn't believe she now knew two people so dense. "Dawn, didn't you suspect it from the way May was acting?"

"Nope, no idea. I've heard from friends before that I'm kind of dense when it comes to romance, especially as I've never really had any romantic experience," Dawn said sheepishly. "Anyway, May, do you plan on telling Drew how you feel?"

"I can't, it's complicated," May sighed. "I don't know if he feels the same way. I just wish everything was simpler..."

Dawn sat up from her bed and gave a thumbs up to May. "No need to worry! I'm sure if you tell him, it'll work out!"

"How can you be so sure?" May asked.

"Because you're a great catch! Drew would be an idiot not to say yes to you!"

"Wow, thanks Dawn! You know what? I'll do it," May declared. "Now I've just got to figure out when to tell him. Timing is key."

* * *

 **Sorry that this is coming out later than anticipated! It's pretty typical that as soon as I try set a regular schedule for something, I suddenly become a lot more busy with school. I'll see if I can get the next chapter out at least within two weeks if not within one.**

 **Also, if anyone's interested, I'm planning on making this story around 25 or so chapters long. I've actually already planned what's going to happen in the story up to around chapter 20, and I'm hoping I'll have the whole thing planned out by the end of the month. It's just the actual process of writing which I find so time consuming. Also any reviews on this story are always appreciated, as they're what really motivate me to keep going, positive or negative.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading and see you next chapter!**

 **-AnonT83**


	4. Misty's Trust

"Hey Misty, you think our egg will hatch soon?" Ash asked rather cluelessly.

Ash, Misty, Gary, and his partner Leaf all sat in Health class in disbelief of the fact that somebody's egg had already hatched. It had only been a week and a half since they were given the eggs.

"Come on Ash, you heard the professor. Every egg is different," Misty said. "For all we know, we could be taking care of ours for several more weeks."

The professor looked at her watch and shrugged. "We've still got a few minutes left, but we've reached a good stopping point. You can leave early," she said.

They got up, which prompted Misty to ask Ash a favour before he left. "Hey Ash, you've got a free period next, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Is it okay if you watch the egg for a few hours? My next class is going to have us doing some field work, and I think having the egg with me will slow me down."

"Okay, sure," he complied, taking the egg off Misty. "So have you guys got classes too? Me and Dawn were going to hang out, and the more the merrier."

"Yeah, sorry," Leaf replied with a small smile.

"I'm afraid so, Ashy-boy," Gary grinned.

"You can turn down the offer without annoying me you know," Ash sighed.

"I know, but where's the fun in that?"

Ash rolled his eyes at Gary and parted ways with the others as he headed outside. He decided to go to where he knew Dawn's class would be finishing up, since he had time to get there before she was done. Truth be told, Ash didn't mind his other friends turning down his offer to hang out with him and Dawn as he was perfectly content with it being just the two of them. Most people would think that it would be awkward hanging out alone with somebody that they didn't know for very long, but it wasn't like that with Dawn. He saw a lot of himself in her. It was like he didn't have to try when they talked.

Ash reached a benched area which was just outside of the building that Dawn's class was in. He placed the egg on the end of the bench and rested for a moment. A minute later, everyone was leaving the building. Ash spotted Dawn, and she was walking with May.

"You've gotta be kidding me! Have you two just had the same class?" He asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, did we forget to tell you? We're in the same Pokémon Ethics class," May laughed, sitting down alongside Dawn.

"We only had our first lesson on Friday," Dawn added. "Hey Ash, how come you've got the egg? Isn't it Misty's turn today?"

"Yeah, but she couldn't really take it with her for her next class. She said she was doing field work or something."

May suddenly got up, remembering that she had the same class. "That's right. I ought to be heading to that!" Ash wasn't even surprised at this point that his friends seemed to all be in the same classes.

"Wait May," Dawn halted. "Are you going to tell Drew about your feelings today? You've been putting it off for over a week now."

"Actually, I am. I'm going to do it in the afternoon after everybody's done with their classes. Happy?"

"Hey, I'm only nagging you because I want _you_ to be happy," she innocently smiled.

"I know, and I appreciate it. Anyway, gotta go," May said as she walked off.

"So, what do you wanna do?" Dawn asked Ash, now that her full attention was on him.

"Well, I realised that since we started at the academy, we haven't really seen much of Goldenrod City. I was thinking that we could explore it a little more," he suggested.

"Sure, sounds like fun! Lead the way, _Ashy-boy_ ," she said, smiling mischievously.

"Not you too! You've been around Gary for too long."

"I'm just teasing you," she giggled.

"That's what Gary said when he said that for the first time too. Seven years later, and he's still calling me that," he groaned.

"I think he only teases you because you all tease him," Dawn remarked.

Ash couldn't really deny what she was saying; Gary was always the target of any jokes. In fact, May and Drew had only known Gary for a little over a week and they teased him relentlessly too.

"Okay, you have a point there. I can't help it though, he gives such great reactions!"

"I think it's natural," she commented. "I think that in every group, someone naturally gets teased more than everyone else. Doesn't mean that they're disliked, normally the opposite. In my old group of friends from Sinnoh, my friend Barry was mercilessly teased. But in a way, I miss him more than my other friends." The two of them arrived at the entrance of the campus. "Where do you wanna go first?" Dawn asked.

"How about the Radio Tower?"

As they walked to the Radio Tower, Ash thought about what Dawn said. It was funny, when she called him 'Ashy-boy', it didn't annoy him. There was something about being teased by Dawn that he liked. But he couldn't tell her that, that would be weird.

* * *

After a leisurely look around the Radio Tower, Ash and Dawn decided to sit down for a few minutes before they went back to the campus. They picked a quiet spot by the fountain which was secluded from the more urban parts of the area. In fact, it was so quiet that Dawn could hear the growling of Ash's stomach.

"I guess I'm hungry," Ash sheepishly remarked.

"It's not even lunch and you're already hungry? Did you even have breakfast this morning?" Dawn laughed.

"Yeah, I just have a big appetite," he said, rummaging through his backpack. "I think I have something to eat it in here somewhere."

"Umm, Ash... ?"

"Yeah, Dawn?"

"Where's your egg?"

Ash slowly reared his head from out of his bag, hoping that Dawn was playing some sort of prank on him. But the realisation very quickly dawned on Ash that the egg wasn't with him.

"Oh shit! Misty's going to kill me!" He exclaimed. He could already imagine her reaction to the bad news. Misty, while friendly and caring, had an extremely short temper.

"Calm down, Ash. It couldn't have gone far," Dawn reassured him.

"Dawn, we're in the middle of the biggest city in Johto! Anyone could easily take the egg! Don't you remember a few years back, there was that story on that criminal gang that stole pokémon?"

"That was years ago, Ash. Look, I think we should just go back to the Radio Tower and ask the staff there if they've seen it." Dawn looked at her watch, aware that wouldn't really have time to help Ash. "But I think you'll have to do it on your own because I've got a class in twenty minutes."

"You're not going to help me look for it?"

Dawn thought about that for a moment. Class was important to her, but she couldn't just leave Ash like that.

"You're right. Of course I'm going to help you look for it."

* * *

The next hour was one of the most stressful in Ash's life. They went back to the Radio Tower and talked to the staff there but none of them knew anything about a missing egg. The only explanation left for its whereabouts was that somebody had taken it, a fact that he didn't want to have to face.

Eventually, after an hour of trying to think where they possibly could have left it, they were now back on campus. Ash didn't want to waste any more of Dawn's time and insisted that she went to her last class.

"Unless it's in the lost and found here on campus, I'm completely screwed," Ash uttered hopelessly.

"Sorry I wasn't of any help back in the city," Dawn sighed.

"Don't be silly, I'm the one who should be apologising. Look, I'll see if it's here on campus while you're in class. If I can't find it, that's when I'll tell Misty, since everybody will be done for the day. Thanks so much for trying to help, I really appreciate it. Honestly."

"I know you'd do the same for me," she smiled.

They stood in a comfortable silence for a second, reluctant to go to where they ought to.

"You should go to your class, I don't want to make you late," he insisted. He gave Dawn a look of reassurance as she headed for her class, as if he was confident he could find the egg. However, he wasn't confident that the egg would be on campus. He knew he would have to face a serious scolding from Misty, not to mention the academy.

* * *

In complete contrast to Ash, Gary and Drew were hanging out in their dorm without a care in the world. Leaf was watching the egg for Gary so he could relax, and Drew was half-asleep. That was until he heard knocking at the door.

"Hey Gary, can you get that?"

"Why do I have to get it?"

"Because you're closer to the door."

"But you're the one who wants it to be answered, I don't care."

"Goddamnit Gary," he uttered to himself, getting up to answer the door.

"Oh hey, May. What's up?"

"Hey guys." she said. "Gary, do you mind if I talk to Drew in private?"

"I'm sorry, are you kicking me out of my own dorm?" Gary joked.

"Yeah if that's okay," she said sheepishly.

"Oh."

Gary awkwardly manoeuvred around May and Drew out the door.

This was it. May was alone with Drew for the first time in months. She could finally tell him how she felt. May shuddered. She'd played this moment so many times in her head, but not one of those times did she know what she would do if he said no.

"So what's up?" Drew asked casually.

"Oh, not much. You?" May panicked. She mentally cursed at herself for saying what she just said.

Drew was merely confused by this. "I'm doing okay, I guess."

He chuckled. "Was that all you wanted to say to me? Because you've could've texted me that."

"No, there's something else. I'm just being an idiot."

"Well, what is it?"

May was sure she would have told him the truth, if it wasn't for the ringing of Drew's phone that followed.

Drew took his phone out of his pocket. "Is it okay if I get this?"

May could only nod in response.

"Hey Abby... Yeah, I'm doing great... Sure, I'd like that... Actually I'm not doing anything later, wanna meet up at, say, six?"

May didn't like what she thought she was hearing. Was he making plans with another girl she didn't know about?

"Okay, great! See you then." He hung up.

"Who was that?" May couldn't help but ask.

"Oh, just a girl I've been seeing. Anyway, what were you saying earlier?"

"It doesn't matter now," she mumbled.

"You sure?"

"Yeah," she sighed.

"May," he put his hand on her shoulder and looked her straight in the eye, causing her to blush slightly. "If there's something bothering you, you know you can tell me."

"I-I know," she stuttered. "And I will, when the time comes. Anyway, I'm gonna go back to my dorm, I have a ton of homework."

"Okay," he smiled. "Well, I guess I'll see you later."

As the door closed, May gently rested the back of her head on it.

 _I've blown it._

* * *

Ash reluctantly walked to Misty's dorm. He hadn't been able to find the egg in the last hour, so he'd have to tell her what happened. He could imagine the look on Misty's face when he broke the news, and he didn't like it.

He knocked on the door, almost hoping that Misty wasn't there to answer it, just so he could prolong the current situation as it was.

Misty opened the door, giving an unimpressed look. "Ash Ketchum."

 _Does she know? How could she know?_

"Hey Misty," he squeaked. "Um, so I kind of have some bad news..."

"I know you lost the egg, Ash. Look," she gestured to the egg which was placed on her desk.

"Oh God, Misty, I'm so sorry."

"You better be sorry!" She said more than a little sternly. "We're insanely lucky that May found the egg."

"May found it?"

"This morning, when you, Dawn and May met up, May went back to find you guys because she forgot to give Dawn back her notes that she borrowed. You guys weren't there, but the egg was."

"God, I feel like such an idiot," he cursed at himself.

"You should."

Ash was growing bitter. He knew he deserved to be scolded for being so careless, but even so, something occured to him. "Wait, I get why May couldn't have texted us since she doesn't have our numbers yet, but why couldn't you have told us you had the egg? We were searching for it for over an hour!"

"Well why didn't you text me that you lost it?" Misty retorted.

"Because I didn't want you to blow up in my face like you are now!"

"Well, you did a good job avoiding that!" She laughed sarcastically.

Gary strided down the hall to the dorm, not anticipating Ash standing outside of it.

"Hey guys," he said, oblivious to their situation, "May kicked me out of my dorm so I was hoping I could hang out here for a while."

Only then did Gary realise neither of them were in a good mood.

"Maybe I should come back later..."

* * *

 **Can Ash and Misty make up? Will May ever confess to Drew how she feels? Who knows? Well, I know, but that's besides the point.**

 **Also, just as an FYI of sorts, my general format for each chapter is to have two (or sometimes three) plots interlinked together, since that way the six characters are all equally relevant. I don't really like the idea of any of the six being secondary characters to the others (although obviously Ash is the closest we have to a main character). One of my goals when writing this story is for there to not be a single chapter where a character is completely absent. The only downside to there being multiple plots is that the chapters are difficult as hell to name (something I still haven't gotten around to doing).**

 **Anyway, thanks as always for reading! Let me know if you like where this story is heading!**

 **-AnonT83**


	5. Drew's New Interest

"Ha! I win again!" Misty declared, throwing her fist into the air after another victory.

Gary was fed up at how Misty was so good at video games. Whenever they played, she always beat him. Even at shooters, which he considered himself pretty good at, she outclassed him. The other four of their friends who were hanging out with them in Gary and Drew's dorm merely laughed at how Gary was such a sore loser.

"You're only winning because you keep camping me!" Gary sulked.

"If you want to try and camp me then go ahead," she smirked, crossing her arms.

"How am I supposed to do that? You never give me a chance to!"

"Fine, I'll let you kill me once," she laughed. Misty knew that Gary sucked at the game they were playing anyway, and it wouldn't take long to kill him again.

"Hey, can I play next?" Ash asked nonchalantly.

"Sure, after I kill Misty. It should only take a minute," Gary laughed in a cocky manner.

"Firstly, you're not going to kill me, Gary. Secondly, if Ash is going to play then he's going to play against me, so I can kill him over and over," she stated matter-of-factly.

Ash rolled his eyes at Misty's comment, knowing full well why she made it.

Gary felt out of the loop, however. "Misty, I feel like you've been kind of mean to Ash lately."

She didn't show much response in this statement, merely mumbling "mhm", as she focused on the game. The screen suddenly displayed Gary's character dying to Misty, much to Gary's annoyance.

"Shit!" Gary uttered, before remembering his original question. "Anyway, why? Why have you been like this?"

"It's his punishment for being so reckless and irresponsible with our egg," she insisted.

Ash sighed. "You know what Misty? I'll play you. Maybe you're not as good as you say you are."

"Feel free to try and prove me wrong, but you won't, "she sneered.

Drew got up from his bed, putting on his hoodie while grabbing his key card. "Well, I hate to leave before seeing Ash get completely destroyed..."

"Thanks man," Ash quickly joked.

"... but I need to go to the dentist, so I'll be back in like an hour or so," Drew said.

"How come?" Dawn asked.

"Nothing important, just a regular checkup. Anyway, I'll see you all later," he said before closing the door behind him.

Upon hearing the door close, Dawn gave a little nudge to May to get her attention. "Hey, so what happened with Drew the other day?" She asked this in a relatively quiet tone, not wanting to get the attention of the others. She was aware that this was the first time since the other day that they had been in each other's presence without any risk of Drew overhearing.

That, however, that didn't stop others from overhearing, as Gary casually intruded. "I hope you guys know that we can hear you."

"Oh, sorry May," Dawn quickly apologised.

"No, it's okay," May assured her. "I don't mind you guys all hearing this. I've liked Drew for a while now, but it's clear that he only sees me as a friend. The other day, he made plans with another girl right in front of me! So, I've decided I'm just going to have to get over him and move on."

"Wow, that's pretty insensitive of him," Misty commented.

"No, I think it's reasonable," May insisted. "I mean, Misty, if Ash made plans with a girl while you were there, you wouldn't care, right?"

"Of course not," she mumbled.

"Exactly! Because Ash is a friend."

"Not at the moment," she replied stubbornly.

May ignored Misty's jab at Ash so she wouldn't defer from her point. "The point is, Drew obviously doesn't think I have any sort of romantic interest in him, so I'd assume he doesn't have any interest in me either."

Dawn frowned sympathetically at May's statement. "Are you going to be okay?"

May gave a small smile back at her. "Well, I'll have to be."

* * *

Gary ended up going outside into the city shortly after Drew so he could buy some stationary supplies, since he was so good at losing them. He decided to meet up with Drew after his appointment where they took a leisurely walk back to the campus.

"So, you're telling me the egg might hatch soon?"

"Yup. In fact, Leaf said she could feel some sort of movement inside of it. That's got to mean it'll hatch soon, right?"

Drew grinned. "So, you think anything else is going to be hatching soon?"

Gary didn't have a clue what Drew meant by this. He merely gave Drew a look of confusion.

Drew sighed. "Do you see a potential relationship between you and Leaf blooming?"

Gary would've spat out his drink if he had one. "Where the hell did that come from? Leaf's just a friend!"

"You're being awfully defensive about somebody who's "just a friend"," Drew said, doing quotation mark gestures with his fingers.

"No, I'm not," he tried to say as casually as possible.

"Please! You have done nothing but talk about her since you met her!"

"What do you expect? She's my partner and our egg is a big responsibility! You're looking too much into it," Gary insisted.

"You're not fooling me, Gary. Look, if you like her, why don't you just ask her out? What's the worst that could happen?" Drew asked him, knowing he was right.

"She could hear me!" Gary retorted, which made Drew give up on his point.

Drew might have tried to convince Gary to be honest about his feelings if not for the fact that their conversation was interrupted by a playful Growlithe which ran straight up to Drew, practically headbutting his ankle.

"Growlithe, come back!" A red-haired girl, who seemed to be very flustered and tired, desperately cried out, trying to get the pokémon's attention.

She managed to catch up to it, picking the pokémon up to stop it from getting away. It cutely looked at Drew and Gary while in her arms, as if it were innocent. The girl profusely apologised to the two who were taken aback by the event.

"I'm so sorry about that! Growlithe here seems to be a little excitable today," she said.

Drew chuckled. "Don't worry about it. There's no need to apologise."

"Well, when he starts using Flamethrower on people, there definitely is," she replied.

"I guess I should count myself lucky," Drew said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "I'm Drew, by way. Oh, and this is Gary," he remembered, gesturing his brown-haired friend.

"Nice to meet you guys! I'm Brianna, and this little terror here is my sister's Growlithe, not mine," the girl smiled.

"Huh. So how come you're the one who has to take care of it?" Drew questioned.

"Well, it's good practice for when I have my own pokémon."

"Ah, that's smart. I wish I had been given some experience with pokémon before I started at the academy in the city," Drew remarked.

"You go to the academy?" At this point, Brianna was way more engaged in Drew than Gary.

"Yup," he replied in a cool manner.

"No way! Me too! Come to think of it, you look kind of familiar. Are you in my ethics class?"

"Maybe," Drew said. "Do you have Professor Ivy?"

"Yeah! It's a small world."

Meanwhile, Gary felt completely invisible. _Jeez, do they even know I exist?_

* * *

The three girls were enjoying their lunch in the cafeteria.

"Hey, can I join you guys?" Ash approached the trio.

"Sure!" Dawn and May replied, seeming more than happy to have Ash join them. Misty merely grunted in response, not seeming unenthusiastic about the idea.

"Come on, Misty. I've apologised, like, fifty times. When is this going to stop?" Ash asked, already predicting a vague response from Misty.

Dawn felt uneasy watching Ash and Misty quarrel like this. She wanted to take some of the blame for what had happened. "I feel like you should be mad at me too for not noticing the egg was gone sooner."

"The egg wasn't your responsibility, Dawn." Misty said calmly, especially considering how annoyed she was at Ash. "I know you wouldn't have let something like this happen if it was your responsibility, anyway."

"Heh, you underestimate me. I can be a real idiot sometimes," Dawn laughed sheepishly.

"Not as much as Ash," Misty said coldly.

"I hope you know, Misty, that if you did something like that, I wouldn't still be holding a grudge like this," Ash argued.

"Oh, is that so?" She retorted sarcastically.

Gary, having become fed up with Drew and Brianna, ended up leaving them to it. He was now at the cafeteria with the others, and he could see the tension between Ash and Misty as he approached their table.

"Hey, what's going on?" He asked.

"Just Ash and Misty bickering about the egg again," Dawn sighed.

"Some things never change, do they?" Gary laughed a little to himself. "Those two argue about everything."

"Are they always like this then?" Dawn asked, interested.

"Yup, but when they make up, they're like besties again. It's weird."

"Hey Gary, where's Drew?" May queried Gary. "Weren't you supposed to meet up with him?"

"Oh yeah, that," he said, conveying his sense of dread to the others. "Some girl started talking to us, and he seemed to really hit it off with her."

"What do you mean?" May was slightly concerned.

"Well, we were just walking back to the campus and then this Growlithe ran up to us. Then it turned out to be the girl's Growlithe, and the two of them just started chatting," Gary said. "I felt like such a third wheel that I made some lame excuse and got the hell outta there!"

"Interesting," Dawn nodded slowly. "So, you think he likes her?"

"Jeez, you're nearly as dense as Ash! Of course he does!" Gary was nearly astounded that Dawn even had to ask.

The two of them could see the anxious look on May's face. Gary promptly corrected himself.

"But you know what? It's probably nothing. Drew loses interest in girls just as quickly as he gains it, right May?"

May was starting to feel the same dread that Gary had just a minute ago. "Yeah…"

* * *

Later that day, Dawn and Misty were hanging out in their dorm after they finished their classes. They were both just relaxing on their beds. Misty was looking at something on her laptop while Dawn was looking at her phone. Misty and Ash's situation was still irking Dawn a little and she felt guilty for him.

"Hey Misty?"

"Yeah?"

"Actually, it's nothing. Forget I said anything." Dawn wanted to defend Ash but she didn't want Misty to get mad at her.

"Okay," Misty said nonchalantly.

She felt like she had to say something. Sure, Misty was her friend, but Ash was her friend too.

"It's just… never mind."

Misty was confused as to why Dawn was being so hesitant about something.

"What is it?"

"Well, here's the thing," Dawn decided she just had to speak her mind. "I hate taking sides, especially between two friends."

"Is this about me and Ash?" Misty had a feeling Dawn would say something.

"Well, yeah," she answered sheepishly. "I just think you've been a bit harsh on him. He didn't mean for anything bad to happen."

Dawn was half-expecting Misty to blow up at her, but she just sighed and shook her head.

"I know I'm harsh on him. I know that I can be mean. The thing is, I have to be. I like Ash, but ever since I've known him, he's been lazy." Misty closed her laptop, giving Dawn her full undivided attention.

"I've never seen him have a passion for something," she continued, "and I guess I thought that this egg would change that, but it didn't. I thought he cared at first, but then he went and lost it and proved me right all along."

"But why does that mean you have to be hard on him?" Dawn asked. She was glad she could ask this without Misty being annoyed now.

"Because it's the only way he'll learn not to be reckless like that again."

"But, the way I see it, pokémon is his passion! He just made a mistake, that's all. One mistake is bound to happen at some point!"

Seeing Dawn stick up for Ash like this really put things into perspective. Misty had only known Dawn for a little over a week, yet Dawn could see the same enthusiasm in Ash that she had herself. Come to think of it, Dawn seemed to share quite a few traits with Ash. How had Misty only just noticed?

"You're right, Dawn." Misty smiled gently. "I think I should go apologise to Ash."

"Okay!" Dawn smiled, relieved the fighting would stop. "I think the guys and May are all hanging out in the guys' dorm again, so why don't we join them?"

The two got up from their beds. Misty was sure to take the egg with her on her way out. After all, it was Ash's turn to take care of it now.

* * *

Arriving at Gary and Drew's dorm, everyone seemed to already be there, except Ash.

"Where's Ash?" Misty asked.

"In his dorm," Drew replied. "I think he'll be here shortly, though."

Misty thought about staying but decided that her apology would probably be more heartfelt in private.

"I'll be back in a sec," she said as she walked down the hall to Ash's dorm.

Misty knocked on Ash's door, hoping for the best. She was nervous to say the least. He opened it, and he didn't seem annoyed as far as Misty could tell.

"Hey," he said. Admittedly, he wasn't expecting to see her, especially with the egg.

"Hi," she said with a small smile. "Can I come in?"

Ash was confused as to why Misty wanted to talk to him suddenly, but he wasn't going to complain if he could be around the egg again. He complied and let Misty in.

"I feel like I owe you an apology," she awkwardly mumbled.

A part of Ash wanted to say something like "you think?" but that wouldn't solve anything. He could see from the way that Misty's fingers were fidgeting around her pockets that she was nervous.

Misty spoke up again before Ash had a chance to think about what he was going to respond, and this time she seemed surer of herself. "Look, it was wrong of me to judge you like that over one small mistake, and I know that you care about our egg just as much as I do. I'm sorry for being mean like that."

Ash tried not to, but he couldn't help but chuckle. So much so that it irritated Misty slightly.

"Hey, I'm trying to apologise here! Is there something funny about that?" Misty said, agitated.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh. It's just, this is so silly," Ash remarked. "I'm just glad you came to your senses and saw things the right way," he teased.

"Don't push it, Ketchum. You still messed up when you lost the egg," she insisted, lightening up a little.

"I know, and I'm going to prove to you that I care about it just as much as you."

"Don't worry, Ash. I believe you," she smiled.

The two hugged for a moment before Misty went to put the egg on the desk. Ash was just glad to have his friend back. Honestly, Misty could say the same about Ash. After Dawn talked to her, she was worried that she scared Ash away.

"So," Ash couldn't help but ask, "what made you change your mind like that? You seemed adamant you weren't forgiving me earlier."

"I was, but I talked to Dawn. Now I feel like an idiot," she laughed.

"I guess I have her to thank."

Misty had to admit, she had a lot of admiration for Dawn. She was good at bringing the best out in others. It wouldn't seem obvious, given how he lost their egg before, but Misty could see that Dawn was bringing out a better side of Ash.

It was a good thing. At least, that's what she told herself. There was a small part of Misty that wondered what Dawn had that she didn't. She would never admit it to anyone, but she was jealous.

"Misty?" Ash addressed his friend, trying to get her attention.

"Yeah Ash?"

"You okay? You looked pretty deep in thought there."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

* * *

"So how were things with Brianna?" Gary asked Drew. Admittedly he was still a little bitter from how he felt so out of place before, but he didn't want to pry.

"Things were great! And hey, I'm sorry about earlier. I didn't mean to ditch you like that."

"Ditch me? Please! I was the one that ditched you guys!" Gary insisted sheepishly.

"Yeah, but I could've tried harder to make you feel a part of the conversation," Drew reasoned.

"Nahhhh, I was just being shy."

Dawn scoffed a little at Gary's comment. "Gary? Shy? I don't believe that for a second."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Gary was almost afraid to ask.

May, deciding to diffuse the potential tension between Gary and Dawn, interrupted the two. "So Drew, you think you'll see Brianna again?"

"I think so," he said. "I mean, she's only in one of my classes, but that doesn't mean we can't hang out in the evenings, right?"

"Mhm," May hummed, trying to sound excited for him.

"In fact, I'm thinking that maybe after we go out a couple more times, I might ask her to be my girlfriend," Drew remarked.

"Wow," Gary commented, "you don't do that with just anyone. Well, if you need advice on that, I'm always here to help."

He heard the girls giggle when he said that. "What? I give good advice!"

"Gary, have you ever even had a girlfriend?" Dawn asked teasingly.

"Does my girlfriend from when I was in second grade count?"

"No," Dawn said.

"Then no. But that'll soon change," Gary stated confidently.

"Ooh, is there a particular girl you like, then?" May questioned, now invested in Gary's remark just as much as Dawn.

"There might be," he hinted.

"I say you ask her out then!" Drew patted Gary's shoulder. "How about we see who can ask out the girl they like first?"

"That's not fair, your girl likes you back! Mine probably doesn't."

"Who is the girl you like, anyway?" Dawn asked Gary.

"I bet it's that girl he's keeping the egg with," May added.

"Leaf? No! We're just friends!" Gary frantically shook his head.

"Oh, it's totally Leaf," May said to Dawn.

"So we've told you guys who we like," Drew intervened, "Who do you girls like?"

"No one," they said in unison. Gary raised his eyebrow.

Dawn tried to fake a yawn as best she could. "Well, it's getting late. I think I'm going to go to bed."

"But Ash and Misty aren't here yet," Drew replied.

"They seem like they're doing their own thing anyway. I'm sure I'll see them both a lot tomorrow," Dawn said. "See ya!"

Dawn decided to lurk in the halls for a couple of minutes after leaving the dorm. She figured that May wouldn't stay much longer since Drew was probably going to ask about her love life.

Soon enough, May was out of there too. "Oh, Dawn! What are you doing here?"

"I just wanted to see if you were okay," she said.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Dawn merely raised her eyebrows in response.

"Oh, because of the thing where Drew said he liked that Brianna girl? That'll never last anyway."

But she didn't know that for sure. She hadn't seen Drew this passionate about a girl for a long time. And last time he was this passionate about someone, it didn't end well for anyone.

* * *

 **Bet you weren't expecting this! Sorry that it's been such a long time since I last posted a chapter. It's crazy to think six months have passed, though. It honestly doesn't feel like it's been as long as that. I don't really have a good excuse as to why it's been so long. I just kind of lost motivation to write, as bad as that sounds. I really enjoy writing the plot for this story, but the actual process of putting everything into words isn't a strength of mine.**

 **Anyway, I've got important exams for the next couple of months, so it may be a while until the next update. But I'm planning to write a lot more consistently in the summer when I have absolutely zero obligations! It's going to be great!**

 **And if you're still reading, thanks so much for sticking around! I really appreciate you being patient. The fact that you read my stories at all means a lot to me. If you want to leave a review, that would totally make my week! :)**

 **Until the next chapter!**

 **-AnonT83**


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